'Smiling' Bali bomber Amrozi afraid before death

Sydney, Nov 10: Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, one the three 2002 Bali bombers, looked pale and afraid as he was taken from his cell to the firing squad on Saturday night where all the three were 'fired to death' at around 12-15 am. After carrying one of the bloodiest carnage in Indonesia, Amrozi had regularly smiled in front of TV cameras, took pride in the devastation caused, and after he was sentenced to death, he cheered and gave the thumbs up to judges, then to his victims' families.

An unidentified source, who was also involved in the execution process, revealed that that of the three, Amrozi was the "least brave" and that as his end neared he looked "pale" and afraid. He was also the quickest to die after all three were strapped to wooden posts and shot at the same time by firing squads, the source said and added that his older brother Mukhlas was "more defiant", repeatedly shouting "Allah Akbar" until his last moments, reported the Courier Mail.

The third one executed last night was Imam Samudra, aka Abdul Aziz.

The jail sources said that the three men had known death was stalking them. They seemed resigned to their fate. At 11pm on Saturday, about 30 members of the paramilitary Brimob police, wearing balaclavas to hide their identity, went to the cells of the three men.

The three were shackled hand and feet, chains running from wrist to the ankle. "They looked like they accepted their fate. They didn't struggle," one witness said.

As they were led from their cells, their ankles were bound so tightly they had to shuffle. The rest of the jail was quiet except for the bombers' exhortations of "Allah Akbar".

"They were shouting but it was not really loud. The situation was quite calm. Not all three of them were shouting (Allah Akbar) at once. It was separately, one then the other," another source said.

The bombers had been praying all afternoon and when the officers came to collect them, Amrozi said he knew it was time. They had also been fasting. They were taken out to waiting double-cab pick-up trucks. Each man was put in the second row of seats, in the middle and flanked by armed police on either side.

When they arrived at Nirbaya, the bombers were taken from the trucks and tied to posts, they were ministered to by three Muslim preachers who read to them from the Koran.

Black hoods were put over their heads and at 12.15am the signal to shoot was given. At 12.20am the doctor pronounced them dead and at 12.25am the three bodies were untied and taken to a nearby jail clinic for an autopsy. Later, they were washed in the Muslim tradition by Ali Fauzi, the brother of Amrozi and Mukhlas, and the Muslim clerics.

At dawn the men's bodies were flown in police helicopters to their home villages in East and West Java for burial.